DEAR DR. NERDLOVE: I am 26 years old and have been hard on myself for being (mostly) single for the past few years. Many aspects of my life are great. I have a great job in Los Angeles programming video games, above-average physical fitness, a good group of friends, and interesting hobbies. I perform well on online dating websites, and with effort, get about one online date a month. 

That said, I feel that my diet restrictions are holding me back from performing better in both online and real life dating pools. I have celiac disease, which requires a strict gluten-free diet, and I also have a number of other mild food allergies. Restaurant outings are stressful, so I have organized my life around mostly avoiding them. I spend my weeknights cooking a particular rotation of food, and then pack the leftovers for day trips throughout the weekend.

This lifestyle is manageable, but it has some hard limitations. I spend 7-10 hours per week cooking, giving me less time for social outings or dates. It also kills my ability to do anything impulsive. If I click with an online dating match on Monday, I can only offer to go out with them on Friday at earliest. My friends tell me that most women lose interest within a couple of days, so I am potentially missing out on an unknown number of dates. I fear that my scheduling restrictions, combined with the limited number of restaurants I am willing to eat at, gets interpreted by women as a lack of enthusiasm for dating them. 

In the real world, my lifestyle limits my random social encounters. My friends are great, but they never eat at gluten free restaurants, so they never invite me to grab dinner with them. By far, the worst events are the paid social dinners catered for 20-somethings. I get the double insult of paying for food that I can’t eat, and conspicuously bringing my own food with me. The last thing I want to talk about with people I have just met are my diet restrictions. I skip these entirely.

Most of my social life involves hosting or attending house parties. In my experience, these have been great for strengthening existing friendships, but a slow way to meet new people.

What can I do to take my dating life to the next level?

Diet Destroys Dates 

DEAR DIET DESTROYS DATES: I have a few thoughts, DDD, but before that, let me reach back into my personal dating history for a second.

Back in the day, I dated a woman who had a veritable list of allergies that she suffered from. This is not an exaggeration; she literally had a list of what she was allergic to, and it was important because those allergies ranged from “really annoying” to “very, very dead”. Dating her meant that I was going to have to put a great deal of thought into dates and activities in ways that I hadn’t had to before; even something as simple as my eating food that might contain allergens that affected her could turn a good night kiss into a quite literal kiss of death. As a result, it was hard to plan quick impulsive dinners (at first…); any date that involved food meant a not insignificant amount of research, checking and double checking everything about where we might eat. But she was awesome, so hey, you do what you have to.

What I learned while dating her was to de-couple dates from food, at least in the early days. Until I had a better idea of what restaurants were safe, our dates were more activity based –going dancing, hanging out, singing karaoke, taking walks, etc. It meant being a little more creative and getting away from the usual “dinner/movie” paradigm, which is a stale date anyway. And the more familiar I became about her dietary restrictions, the easier it was to be more impulsive. It meant having a smaller list of places to go for a quick meal – we couldn’t exactly go check out the cute new bistro on a lark – but it worked well.

(Incidentally, she’s married to a great guy and has some adorable kids, so clearly her dietary allergies didn’t hinder her romantic life TOO badly…)

So let’s bring it back to you, DDD.

What you have right now is a gift, in a perverse, wish-you’d-kept-the-receipt-so-you-could-give-it-back kind of way: you know pretty much right off the bat whether or not somebody is going to be compatible with you. You have specific, non-negotiable restrictions in your life; if someone can’t or won’t work within them, then the two of you were never going to work out in the first place. Similarly, if someone is going to see the fact that you can’t eat certain foods as a deal-breaker or an inconvenience they don’t want to put up with, then they have self-selected straight out of your dating pool. Does this limit the number of people who’ll say yes in the first place? Yeah… but at the same time, you’re not wasting the time, money or emotional energy on them just to find out that it would never work.

But that’s all on the emotional, philosophical side of your dating situation. Let’s talk about the practical side.

The first thing to do is simple: be up front with your restrictions. Don’t be apologetic or roll it out like you’ve been cursed by an old Roma woman because you ran over her goldfish. It’s not something to be ashamed of or to be embarrassed about, it’s just part of who you are. So let people know up front on your dating profile: “FYI, I have celiac disease, so I have some dietary restrictions.” Simple, direct and to the point. Folks who are going to be scared off by it are folks you wouldn’t be dating anyway. It also means that there’s less worry that you’re somehow showing a lack of interest.

It’s the same thing with your schedule issues. Lots of folks have tight schedules, and not many people are able to go out on dates beyond an hour for coffee or drinks on a weekday in the first place. That’s not likely to be an issue. Similarly, don’t stress the inability to be impulsive. Not every woman wants to just take off to wherever the whim takes them; there’re plenty of women who appreciate planning and structure.

When it comes to keeping the emotional momentum going before the date, there’re a number of ways to do that – especially if you’ve met up via OKCupid or other online dating sites. If you can swing it, you can meet for a mid-week pre-date date – that aforementioned hour for coffee or a quick drink – while you see Ms. Right On Screen is also Ms. Right In Person. If you can’t… well, it’s not like you can’t continue the conversations you were having before you set up a date. If the two of you were vibing and having a great time writing back and forth, you can still text or message each other. They don’t need to be long or involved conversations, but even a short jokey or flirty exchange can keep that ball rolling until Friday night.

Meanwhile, build up a repertoire of dates that aren’t focused around food. Comedy clubs, pool, skee-ball, go-karts, dancing, hikes, museum tours, even things like Mystery Rooms all make for excellent dates. Picnics give you a little more room to be impulsive and playful while still making sure you have food choices you can eat. And as the two of you get closer, you can have hang-out dates at your place – you might even invite her over for a home-cooked (and gluten free) meal. Bring wine and candles and it’s instant romance.

(Oh, and as a slight aside: dude, your friends kiiiinda sound like jerks. I mean, they may be great in other respects, but if they never really stop to think that “Hey, DDD can’t eat here, maybe we should look for a place where he can come with us…” that’s kinda awful of them. But that’s a rant for a different time. )

Don’t let your restrictions get you down, DDD. As any artist can tell you: having some boundaries to bounce off of can inspire you to greater levels of creativity than the (surprisingly) intimidating option of infinite choices. It’ll take a little more prep work and planning than it might for other folks, but you don’t have to let your worries hold you back from the dating life you want.

Good luck.

DEAR DR. NERDLOVE: I have been with my wife for almost 19 years, married almost 15, and have a dilemma. Recently (the past few months or so), she has been asking me how much I love her. I think she is playing around and give her an answer like “more than I can begin to tell you”. Actually, I feel the answer should be “enough to put up with you for asking such a question.” I am the sole breadwinner and do the cooking and food shopping, as well as drive when we go out (she has a license). I also do everything I possible can for her. She isn’t a queen or princess or anything so she isn’t spending money faster than I can make it. We have a joint credit card that she uses and the highest the bill has been was a few hundred dollars for Christmas gifts. With all I do for her, I don’t know why she continues to ask this question nor how I can answer it to her satisfaction. I am feeling like I am being pushed away when she asks this question.

Please provide your thoughts.

Thanks!

Questionable Concerns

DEAR QUESTIONABLE CONCERNS: This… isn’t really a problem, QC. She’s not trying to push you away. It sounds more to me like someone who’s just looking for a little reassurance that you love her now, even after nearly 20 years. Joking answers can be cute and funny, but if she’s actually feeling a little insecure or worried about something, then the best thing you can do is give her a serious answer and tell her why you love her.

But here’s the thing, QC: if you want to know why she’s continuing to ask the question, then the person who can answer this question is your wife, not some loud mouthed jack-ass with an advice column. So use your words already. Ask her why she’s asking and what she needs to be reassured that yes, you do love her. She’ll be in a much better position to tell you what’s going on than I am.

Good luck.

Please send your questions to Dr. NerdLove at his website (www.doctornerdlove.com/contact); or to his email, doc@doctornerdlove.com)

DEAR DR. NERDLOVE: What the hell is there to do in the real world?

I say this as I’ve been getting more active in talking to women (albeit at the checkout line but it’s a start) and doing some online dating. 

Basically, I have absolutely no idea of what to do outside and I know that when I get a date, it is unlikely to be inside my bedroom playing video games, it’s going to be outside doing something, but I have no idea of what to do outside.

I have an interest in typical nerdy stuff, and have wanted to try LARPing but that doesn’t get you dates, useless crap like concerts (the only use in them is selling massively overpriced food, drink or merchandise), coffee dates where you try not to fall asleep, anything hipster where they use antiquated machinery to simulate having a personality, going to bars and paying for drinks then not having your date talk to you again, that’s the thing that most dates are made of.

I’ll admit, this is only stuff I’ve seen in TV shows and movies, but I still have no freaking idea of how to approach actually going on a date with someone, and am considering a life in a monastery ( that’s a lie, I’m too obsessed with machinery for that to ever work)

Also, how the hell do people spend their time without a computer or a phone anyway? I used to love reading and still do but the idea of just reading in a cafe terrifies me for the chance of some twilight-reading meathead to dump a cup of hot coffee over me, or a jock to punch me in the head, or getting ridiculed for reading.

Also I refuse to take my laptop to a coffee shop for the chances of it getting stolen, broken and the fact of I need to build a life outside of it.

Now the gyms a darn good idea, especially as my current diet involves a crap load of Pepsi and little water , I’ve also been trying to get more into philosophy and Buddhism just to make me more well rounded.

I think charity work could also do some good, particularly for a mental health charity, they could use some tech help or just carting around boxes, something to put on the resume.

Doc, I guess I’ll also have to accept that my dreams will never come true, like building giant robots or living on Mars or piloting giant robots or defending the earth from an alien invasion , I was born too early for that. I was holding out hope for that for a long time.

My question is, how can I get a normal life which sucks, as it’s an upgrade to my current one. I’m still young (20s) so that helps.

Blue (almost) Alien

DEAR BLUE ALIEN: Here’s your first step, Blue: turn your damn TV off already. You seem to have gotten the idea that life outside of your apartment is an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia mixed with Revenge of the Nerds and honestly? Not only is none of that true, but it’s so cartoonishly wrong that I’m left wondering how you manage to get to the grocery store without taking the wrong left turn at Albuquerque.

Right now, dating is the last thing you need to be doing. You need to get some basic life experience under your belt because your view of the world is so off-kilter that you’re not going to get a date in the first place, never mind go on one. Concerts make for lousy first dates but they’re amazing experiences on their own. Coffee dates are all about talking with your date and getting to know them and seeing if it’s worth going on a second, more active date. And I really have no idea where the hell you’re going with “hipster crap” or the idea that going to a bar somehow results in your date not talking to you.

And that’s before we get into the weirdness about bullies who…also read… Twilight?? Or random jocks traveling in packs and physically assaulting people or being made fun of for reading?

Like, that’s not how it works. That’s not how any of this works. I not only read books in cafes and restaurants, but I read my weekly stack of comics while I’m out and about. Hell, one of my close friends has various bars she’s designated as reading spots when she wants to get out, have a beer and relax with the latest from Seanan McGuire or Myke Cole. Nobody is going to give a damn about the fact that you have a book with you.

I also do a fair amount of work in coffeeshops when I need to get out of the house. Here’s how you keep your laptop from being stolen while you’re there:

YOU: Hey, I have to run to the bathroom for a second. Could you keep an eye on things and make sure someone doesn’t jack my stuff?

HELPFUL STRANGER: Sure!

(later)

YOU: Thanks, appreciate that.

HELPFUL STRANGER: No problem.

So before you start worrying about dating – or flirting, really – you need to pry yourself away from your phone, your laptop, your TV and apparently damn near everything electronic and actually get out into the meat space. You need to spend some time – and I mean evidently a lot of time – interacting with people without a screen between the two of you. Social skills are more than just making small talk while you’re bagging up your groceries, it’s understanding how the world works, what behavior is appropriate to the situation and how to read the social context. And honestly, even if we allow for your exaggerating for effect, you seem to have little idea about, well, any of it.

So you need to close down all your tabs with Twitter, Reddit, 4chan, kiwifarms and any of the rest of it, log out of Snapchat and actually go outside. Everything you listed, from going to the gym to volunteer work? Yes, do that. Find a LARP group or a geek-themed pub-quiz. Hell, go chase (or get chased by) zombies and see if you’ll survive the zombie apocalypse. Join a Pokemon Go MeetUp. If you’re going to study Buddhism, then I suggest you go to an actual temple in your area and see if they have any classes. Get your local alt-weekly and make a list of everything going on this weekend and pick three events to go to. Go to some dive bars and have a beer, go see a concert with a no-name band, eat some food that didn’t get delivered to your house or come from a chain restaurant (and preferably has a vegetable or two mixed in) and actually get to know your town and the people who live in it.

You need to spend more time outside and getting to know the world around you and how it actually works before you worry about dates or roving gangs of Twilight-reading, crotch-punching jocks who also hate reading. Start building an interesting life that isn’t exclusively on the Internet – and that’s my addicted-to-his-iPhone ass telling you this – and you’ll be in a better place to actually meet women who will want to actually be part of that life. And the more of an interesting life that you lead, the more ideas you’ll have for dates.

Good luck.

DEAR DR. NERDLOVE: A few months back OKCupid made some changes to their messaging. As I understand it now both parties have to message each other before they will see any messages that have been sent. I was wondering how this might alter some of the standard advice around when to message someone you are interested in?

So with sites like Match that would allow me to message anyone or send them a wink I would expect to message someone to show my interest in them. That would be preferable to just sending them a wink or similar.

But with the changes at OKCupid does that bring it more into line with sites like Tinder where you would just send someone a like and wait to see if they liked you back? Only then would you send a message. Or is it better to take the opportunity to send them a message anyway, which will be waiting for them if they like you back?

I would appreciate your thoughts on this.

Thanks.

What’s OK, Cupid?

DEAR WHAT’S OK, CUPID: The core of my advice for online dating is that you do best by messaging the people who show interest in you first. Doing the dating app equivalent of cold-calls is always going to be considerably less efficient than focusing your attention on the people who showed at least some curiosity about you. 

Now, before OKCupid made serious structural changes to how the site worked, this meant that you could see who’d visited your profile or be notified that someone who had a high-compatibility score was checking you out; then you could send them a message. Now, OKCupid has changed their system to be more like Tinder in that each profile has the option of “Like” or “Pass”. If you like someone, they get a notification. If you both like each other, then you’re able to message one another.

You still can send people a message without having matched first… but OKCupid will only show the first couple of lines.

So while the dynamic of the site has changed some, it hasn’t changed that much. However, it does prioritize mutual interest prior to messaging, rather than shotgunning out dozens of messages and hoping something stuck.

How do you work with this new dynamic? Well, you have to make sure your dating profile is up to snuff. If you’re not getting any attention or likes from people, then it’s on you to go through and do some serious revamping of your profile. What is the story your dating profile is telling potential matches? Do your photos show you off to your best effect and do they match the version of you from your dating profile?

Are you practicing good dating SEO and making sure that your profile is liberally sprinkled with hooks for matches to respond to? Are you making sure that your profile is appealing to the people that you want to match with? If you’re trying to, say, find a no-strings casual relationship, those pictures of you playing with your adorable nephew are going to send the message that you’re looking to get married and settle down.

And don’t forget: the algorithm is watching. People who’re more active get higher priority in other people’s feeds. So switching out your photos regularly or A/B testing the various sections of your profile will put you up in front of more people and invite curious sexy strangers to come check you out.

Fine tune your profile until there’s no fat to trim and it’s polished to a high gloss. Then, as the “likes” roll in, see how many of them you dig. Having to have mutual likes may seem like an inconvenience, but trust me: you’ll get a better rate of return on those messages than if you’re just firing off at everyone you see.

Good luck.

Please send your questions to Dr. NerdLove at his website (www.doctornerdlove.com/contact); or to his email, doc@doctornerdlove.com)

DEAR DR. NERDLOVE: Before I get to the core of the problem, I want to give you a little background of where I come from. As a teenager I grew up a fairly popular kid. I had people fawning over me all the time – men and women. Naturally, I didn’t know rejection until well past my late teens. When I was about 18-19, I dated this girl I was madly in love with for about 4-5 years. Eventually it ended and the end wasn’t very good for me.

Unfortunately, I suffered an almost-mortal illness days after the break-up, which just contributed further to making my recovery harder. My time together with her had made me so dependent that it took me a really long time to get out of that zone and start being a confident, desirable human being again. I did eventually recover, worked extremely hard on myself and started dating the kind of women I really wanted again. Still, I was somewhat commitment phobic and bailed every time things started to move in a more serious direction again. It took me almost 4-5 years more before I actually got into my next exclusive, committed relationship.

I recently moved to a new city and the change has been kinda hard to adapt to. My (ex) girlfriend and I ended our relationship mutually since we were both moving to different cities and agreed that neither of us wanted a LDR. Having said that, this whole change caused several of my past insecurities to crop up and I found myself struggling socially again. It took me a while to make new friends and build a social circle at all but eventually I made a couple of really close friends – a girl and a guy. I was somewhat attracted to the girl but decided not to make a move on her because she had a long-term/long distance boyfriend, and in either case, I decided that her friendship was more precious to me than any foreseeable sexual pleasure. Fast forward a few days and I find out that my two best friends are hooking up. At a fundamental level I am okay with this – I don’t really care so much. I am not into the girl so much for it to bother me. The problem is that I actually share an apartment with the guy and sometimes when they hook up at our place I can hear them, which really upsets me. I also feel kind of awkward hanging out alone with them because I feel like I am just being an obstacle. Sometimes I catch myself wondering that they only hang out with me because two of us live together. A part of me knows that this is not entirely true, but a part of me that’s driven by my insecurities can’t help thinking this way. I have already had individual conversations with both of them about their equation and told them that I did not entirely appreciate the fact that they sneak around behind my back to hook up because I’d have much rather preferred that they be honest with me than take me for a fool. But I also told them that whoever either of them chooses to hook up with is none of my concern and I frankly do not care so much.

Now the core nature of my problem is that I expect a certain degree of sensitivity and discretion on their part. Both of them know that I have a thing for her, even if it isn’t a big deal. I have no intention of making a move for her now or in the future, but just knowing that the girl auto-rejected me is a confidence downer for me. It’s also not exactly like I am going through a dry spell. I manage to occasionally attract women I want to sleep with and do it too. It’s just that I feel really out of place with my two closest friends in this new city and I do not know what my place is any more or where I stand with either of them. I feel like if they cared for me, they wouldn’t put me through this awkward situation. Frankly, I don’t even know what or if I expect any kind of answer from you – I just needed to get this off my chest, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to bring this up with either of them. I don’t want to come across as a whiny little cow, but I also am kind of suffering and it has a negative impact on my overall social success. If you have any thoughts for me, I’d be glad to hear/read. I enjoy reading your columns, and most things you say make sense to me both intuitively and counter-intuitively.

Cheers, 

Guilty As Charged

DEAR GUILTY AS CHARGED: There’s a lot to get into here GaC, but as is often the case, I think a lot of what you’re describing are symptoms stemming from a central cause. In this case, I think you’re dealing with some anxiety around relationships of all stripes – sexual and platonic.

This isn’t terribly surprising, or even all that uncommon. I’ve been fielding questions like yours for my entire career. In your case, you started off in an intensely dependent relationship at an incredibly difficult time of your life. You came back from that, which is awesome. It’s a testimony to your strength and fortitude that you pushed through the difficult times and managed to come out through the other side.

But the thing to keep in mind is that these experiences tend to leave scars on your soul. This doesn’t mean that you’re weak or that you’re not better; it just means that you’ve been through some shit and that’s going to stay with you.

And honestly, it’s not at all surprising that you’re a little anxious about having moved to a new city, especially one where you have no pre-existing social circle. One of the unspoken crises of modern life is how intensely lonely we all have become. We’re all craving that connection with other people. We want our tribe and our family of choice. Considering what you’ve gone through, it’s entirely understandable that you’re incredibly sensitive to any perceived threats to your connection with your friends. Doubly so, considering that you’re attracted to one of them. This is known as “hypervigilance”; you’re constantly on high alert, looking for any possible signs of trouble. But one of the consequences of hypervigilance is that it’s very easy to take a normal situation and mistake it as a reason to panic.

Case in point: your relationship with your friends. In any other situation, this would be slightly awkward and uncomfortable for a little bit, then everyone would settle down and recognize the status quo – assuming, that is, that nobody’s being an a

hole about it. In your case, however, you’re almost seeking out problems because you expect them. You believe that this is going to happen and so that confirmation bias kicks in and you take minor issues and overly inflate their significance, running them through the filter of your belief that you are going to get left behind again.

Take, for example, the idea that your female friend “auto-rejected” you. This honestly isn’t what happened. To start with, you didn’t make a move. You chose not to do anything. That’s not rejection, that’s the absence of action. You can’t get rejected if you never actually acted on your interest.

At the same time, the fact that she had other partners, before and after she met you, has nothing to do with you. Her not leaping into your arms upon meeting you doesn’t mean you auto-rejected. All that happened is that she wasn’t attracted to you. Consider, for example, how you go about your day. You see dozens, even hundreds of women every week. You aren’t attracted to all of them. That doesn’t say anything about them, other than they just don’t have whatever x-factor you need to be into someone. You aren’t being uninterested at them. It’s just a default state of null sexual interest.

The same is true about your friend. The fact that she doesn’t return your interest doesn’t say anything about your value as a person, your attractiveness or your desirability to women in general. It’s just one person who clearly likes you, just not in the way that you would like. Which, y’know, is a shame, but that’s life. Not every crush we have is going to be reciprocated. Similarly, her relationship with your other friend has nothing to do with you either. It’s just how things shook out; they had chemistry and interest, one thing led to another and hey, now they’re hooking up.

But here’s where your anxiety is starting to interfere with things. You are treating this as something being done at you. I mean, you say “I feel like if they cared for me, they wouldn’t put me through this awkward situation.” And trust me, I get how you feel; I have been there, done that and printed the t-shirts. However, the truth is that the situation is quite the opposite. They’re trying to spare you – and them – awkwardness and uncomfortable situations. They know that you have a crush on your friend; being discreet about sleeping together is less about “sneaking around” or treating you like a fool. It’s really about “let’s not rub GaC’s face in this until things are a little less awkward”. They’re trying to be sensitive about your feelings because hey, they’re your friends and they care about you. It’s obvious that you’re uncomfortable with things, and they’re trying to keep it from being too bad.

But to be perfectly honest, you ARE kind of making it worse. I’m sympathetic to how you feel, but ultimately, there’s only so much discretion that can be had before things go from “let’s try to not rub GaC’s face in it” to “GaC is dictating the terms of someone else’s relationship.” You’ve told them both that you don’t care about who they hook up with, yet you clearly do. Putting on a false face of “this doesn’t bug me” makes it much harder to actually address the elephant in the room and get past things because you aren’t being up front about it… with them, or yourself.

As I said: most of this is coming from your anxiety. You’re afraid of being rejected and abandoned and alone again. You’re picking up on things and turning them into existential threats, when they’re nothing of the kind because their feelings for each other isn’t about you. But if you keep letting your anxiety dictate things, it will be… because you’ll have pushed them away.

So here’s what I suggest. First: you need to take a deep breath, let it out, and then let go of their relationship. As long as you treat their relationship as a referendum on you, things are going to be awkward. The more you can let go and just be happy for them because they’re happy and they’re your friends, the less you’ll feel like they’re looking for reasons to cut you loose. Things will feel more relaxed and enjoyable again because there won’t be this sense of tension around where they have to tiptoe around your feelings. Don’t get me wrong: this doesn’t mean that they have license to suck face in front of you, but you also need to not get huffy if they’re together and being affectionate.

And, yeah, hearing their sex-noises is annoying; it’s one of the issues when it comes to having roommates. This is one of those areas where you’re going to have to work to find a compromise. Maybe they can put on some music. Maybe you can get some noise-cancelling headphones. But you’re both going to have to make some allowances for your living situation. They can work on not being excessively loud when they get freak-nasty, you can work on finding ways to not hear it.

Next: work on talking yourself down from the metaphorical ledge. At times it can help to invoke your inner Spock and dispassionately argue against your anxiety. When you have those anxiety flare-ups, then let that Inner Spock remind you that you’re wrong. “No, GaC, evidence shows that they still care for you as a friend. Notice how they continue to spend time with you and include you, even as they pursue a relationship together.” “It is illogical to assume that couples leverage their relationship against someone, GaC. Their wanting to spend time together is about the oxytocin and dopamine production of a new relationship, not psychological games on a third party.”

And honestly, it may be worth talking to somebody to help get your anxiety under control. You may find use in doing some self-guided cognitive behavioral therapy with a site like MoodGym. You may want to try using a service like Talkspace to find a counselor. Or you may talk with your doctor and see if they can give you a referral.

Just remember: your anxiety and hypervigilance isn’t a weakness or a sign that you’re a bad or unworthy person. You’ve been through some shit. You’ve got scars, and this is how it manifests is all. That’s not weakness, that’s the mark of a survivor. You’ve been strong enough to get through the shit that’s come before. You’re strong enough to keep healing.

You’re gonna be ok.

Good luck.

DEAR DR. NERDLOVE: Long time reader, first time writer,

Since I’ve followed your blog I’ve been on “improve your life”, “starting from ground zero” phase for years on end. In that time I’ve kept in shape (strength trained to a competitive level), kept up my grades to improve my long-term future, and tried to improve myself for the right time for someone to come along. I feel like I’ve done everything right, but somehow come up short in the dating world:

Part of the reason this is because I’ve continuously put my life on hold in some ways in pursuit of a better future. In undergrad I stayed away from any sort of long term relationship because I was worried of “overly-attached” -> bad life decision long term or heart break -> bad life outcome (GPA falls apart in a semester etc.)… at the same time until recently I was fairly religious (still am, but while reconciling certain beliefs), and felt that anything short-term was somehow “immoral” and to be avoided.

Over the years, the “right” time just never came along: sure, girls were interested in me, but I wouldn’t pursue. I can’t help but wonder what could have been with (few?) (many?) (special one?) (who cares).

Now years later, I have been forced to take a gap year between degrees and ultimately put my degree on hold. I am frankly sick of waiting to get that part of my life together. At the same time, I understand that getting into anything serious now (as you’d expect 24 year old to) would just be poor form to whoever I date, given that I will eventually return to a career-driven lifestyle.

I have ultimately concluded that short-term things are my only saving grace; something I still don’t stomach well. Am I overthinking all of this?

Still on The Sidelines

DEAR STILL ON THE SIDELINES: In her book THE LOVE GAP, author Jenna Birch has a great term for your sort of mindset: “laser focusing”. Essentially, you have a specific idea about how your life is “supposed” to be in order to date and you’re focusing on it like a laser beam. So you end up treating your life as though you need to grind every aspect of your life to a specific level, in sequential order, to be in a place where you are “ready” to date.

And honestly? That’s what’s slowing you down. Treating your life as though you can only pay attention to one aspect at a time means that you’re going to be waiting for a long time. You can pursue relationships and self-development and your career. Think of a spider’s web, with it’s interconnected threads and strands. Individually, each strand may not seem like much, but they all lead into one another, creating a whole that is stronger than the sum of its parts. If you want to date – instead of waiting for the chance to date – then you need to treat your life more like a web. Let yourself develop in many directions at once, instead of trying to achieve it in sequential stages.

Because, honestly? You’re overthinking things. You’re letting the idea that you can only do one thing at a time hold you back. If you’re going to treat dating as something you can’t do until you’re at the “perfect” place in your career, then you are going to continue sacrificing your life in the name of a future, one that will never truly arrive. Once you get to that place where you say “OK, I’m here” – if you don’t keep kicking things further down the line to your next stage in life – then you’re going to look around and realize how many amazing women you could have dated and be kicking yourself for not taking your chance when you could have.

Waiting until putting your life on hold for a better or more perfect future is a mistake. There will never be a “right” time; there will only be THIS time, right now. Accept that you’re a work in progress, that there will always be room for improvement, but you’re in good shape now and take some chances. You might find something short term. You might find someone who’s so awesome that you’ll decide you want something long-term with them, even as you pursue your career. But if you want to get started, then it’s time to stop sitting on the sidelines and get in the game.

Good luck.

Please send your questions to Dr. NerdLove at his website (www.doctornerdlove.com/contact); or to his email, doc@doctornerdlove.com)